Realimentation of Cull Beef Cows. Ii. Meat Quality of Muscles From the Chuck, Loin and Round in Response to Diet and Enhancement

Abstract

From an experiment in which 60 beef cull cows were assigned to one of three feeding treatments, forage fed, high concentrate or high concentrate plus ractopamine, 10 muscles were removed from both sides of the carcass. Muscles from one side of the carcass were enhanced with a solution to target 0.3% salt and 0.3% phosphate in the final product. Minimal to no differences were observed in color, pH, sensory characteristics or shear force as a result of dietary treatment. Enhancement resulted in muscles with higher (P ≤ 0.05) pH and darker color. Sensory scores for juiciness and tenderness were improved (P ≤ 0.05) with enhancement. The Adductor was the only muscle not exhibiting lower shear values due to enhancement (P > 0.05). To add further value to meat from cull cows, enhancement could be utilized, independent of feeding regimen prior to slaughter. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The use of enhancement in the beef industry has become common practice, particularly in beef from lower grading cattle. However, research examining the improvement in palatability with enhancement has focused mainly on younger cattle. Our research demonstrates that enhancement is able to improve the sensory characteristics of meat from cull cows. Thus, in meat from older animals, which is usually characterized as being less palatable, enhancement could be used to improve the organoleptic traits. This practice may assist the beef industry in capturing further value from cull cows.

Comparison of tenderness, palatability, and retail caselife of enhanced cow subprimals with nonenhanced cow and United States Department of Agriculture Select subprimals1

“…As previously reported in young animals, enhancement improved beef flavor; however, there was also a heightened detection of off flavor in enhanced muscles. In the current study, the beef flavor intensity was less in enhanced cow compared with nonenhanced cow in all 3 subprimals, which contradicts the findings of Holmer et al (2009). Wicklund et al (2005) speculated that enhancement solution ingredients, particularly salt, were capable of masking other flavors.…”

“…Nonenhanced cow steaks were intermediate, whereas enhanced cow steaks were the least. These results are consistent with Holmer et al (2009) that reported enhanced muscles from beef cull cows were visually darker and had less L*, a*, and b* values than nonenhanced muscles. Although enhanced cow steaks in the current study had the darkest muscle color, they had less surface discoloration than nonenhanced cow or Select steaks, which did not differ.…”

“…Robbins et al (2003a,b) found similar results in terms of greater salt intensity of enhanced beef. Holmer et al (2009) obtained paired muscles from cull cows and injected one side with salt and phosphate. As previously reported in young animals, enhancement improved beef flavor; however, there was also a heightened detection of off flavor in enhanced muscles.…”

Effects of feeding a single or sequence of beta-adrenergic agonists on cull cow meat quality

“…Therefore, RH would be expected to have less of an effect on tenderness than ZH. In agreement with our results, Holmer, Homm, Berger, Stetzer, et al (2009) reported that feeding RH to cows had no adverse affects on WBSF values of LM steaks. Additionally, RH supplementation has been reported to slightly increase WBSF values in steers and heifers, but the impact on consumer Table 1 Least squares means for Warner Bratzler shear force of psoas major, infraspinatus, non-enhanced longissimus, and calcium lactate-enhanced longissimus steaks and sensory traits of psoas major and calcium lactate-enhanced longissimus steaks from mature cows fed a high-energy ration for 74 d with or without β-adrenergic agonist supplementation.…”

“…For PM WBSF, steaks from the RH + ZH treatment had a lower numerical value than those from the RH treatment (2.8 versus 3.2 kg; P = 0.12). Holmer, Homm, Berger, Stetzer, et al (2009) reported that PM steaks from cows supplemented with RH tended (P = 0.10) to have higher WBSF values. No other published literature has looked at the influence of β-AA in cull cow feeding systems on PM tenderness.…”